May 26-27
Sioux Falls, SD
Big Sioux Rifle and Pistol Club
What a great weekend at another awesome South Dakota Appleseed! I am always pleased with the quality and wonderful attitude that I find whenever I do one of the Appleseeds there. We made two new Riflemen this weekend. Gary our first Rifleman was on his fourth Appleseed and his second one there in Sioux Falls. Neil, our second Rifleman shot a 210 on the last Rapid Fire AQT.
There was some confusion about if the Appleseed were going to even happen this weekend, because of a safety issue at the range. The Big Sioux Rifle and Pistol Club VOLUNTEERILY closed down until they can make some improvements. Thankfully they still allowed us hold our event there. Hopefully this is a testament to our record of safety and professionalism on the line. In any case I am very grateful for the opportunity to still use their wonderful facilities.
We got started on Saturday morning with a safety briefing and all shooters in attendance. Thankfully Kory, a local IIT, had arrived so I would not be alone to do the instruction all on my own. Everyone was in good spirits and ready to get going despite the potential for some bad weather. The day went on pretty smoothly, and marksmanship definitely improved. As the wind died down the clouds started to clear up, and the temperature started to rise. By mid afternoon the clouds had cleared and the sun came out. Admittedly by the end of the day I was starting to get a little baked. We finished up around 4:30.
On Sunday we got started at 8:30. It was quite windy but clear, so after all the target backers got staked down we were ready to go. The morning went by quickly with some fine tuning before we got into the AQT grind. Lunch was earlier than I usually plan on, but everyone was ready and hungry, including me. The wind and sun had started taking its toll and people were getting burnt out. I brought an official close to the event at 1:30, but stayed so those who still wanted to shoot more AQTs. We fired the last targets and cleaned up the range by 3:00. Everyone went home tired but happy. There was much improvement and I good time was had by all. That makes me feel like my job was done.
A great many thanks to the Big Sioux Rifle and Pistol Club for continuing to support Appleseed. I very much look forward to being back there in July. Well... maybe not the weather that week, but everything else is very much worth it. Thank you to Kory for being there on Saturday to give me hand. Lastly, thank you to the great group of students from South Dakota. I hope to see you again on the Appleseed Trail.
Alex